CONIFERS 53 



solitary, the staminate axillary, scattered along the branches, oblong-cylindrical, 

 with numerous globose anthers, their connectives terminating in short spurs, the pis- 

 tillate terminal or in the axils of upper leaves, composed of spirally arranged ovate 

 rounded scales much shorter than their acutely 2-lobed bracts, with midribs pro- 

 duced into elongated slender tips. Fruit an ovate-oblong acute pendulous cone 

 maturing in one season, with rounded concave rigid scales persistent on the axis of 

 the cone after the escape of the seeds, and becoming dark red-brown, much shorter 

 than the 2-lobed bracts with midribs ending in rigid woody linear awns, those at the 

 base of the cone without scales and becoming linear-lanceolate by the gradual sup- 

 pression of their lobes. Seeds nearly triangular, full, rounded and dark-colored on 

 the upper side and pale on the lower side, shorter than their oblong wings infolding 

 the upper side of the seeds in a dark covering; outer seed-coat thick and crusta- 

 ceous, the inner thin and membranaceous; cotyledons 6-12, much shorter than the 

 inferior radicle. 



Pseud otsuga is confined to western North America and Japan. Three species are 

 recognized. 



Pseudotsuga, a barbarous combination of a Greek with a Japanese word, indicates 

 the relation of these trees with the Hemlocks. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 



Leaves usually rounded and obtuse at the apex, dark yellow-green or rarely blue-green ; 

 cones small, their bracts much exserted. 1. P. mucronata (B, E, F, G, H), 



Leaves acuminate at the apex, bluish gray ; cones large, their bracts slig-htly exserted. 



2. P. macrocarpa (G). 



1. Pseudotsuga mucronata, Sudw. Douglas Spruce. Red Fir. 



Leaves straight or rarely slightly incurved, rounded and obtuse at the apex, or 

 acute on leading shoots, |'-1^' long, Ye'-yV ^ic^^, dark yellow-green or rarely light 

 or dark bluish green, usually persistent until their eighth year. Flo"wers : stami- 

 nate orange-red ; pistillate with slender elongated bracts deeply tinged with red. 

 Fruit pendant on long stout stems, 2'-4r^' long, with thin slightly concave scales 

 rounded and occasionally somewhat elongated at the apex, usually rather longer than 

 broad, when fully grown at midsummer slightly puberulous, dark blue-green below, 

 purplish toward the apex, bright red on the closely appressed margins, and pale 

 green bracts becoming slightly reflexed above the middle, j~i' wide, often extending 

 ^' beyond the scales; seeds light reddish brown and lustrous above, pale and marked 

 below with large irregular white spots, \' long, nearly ^' wide, almost as long as their 

 dark brown wings broadest just below the middle, oblique above and rounded at the 

 apex. 



A tree, often 200 high, with a trunk 3-4 in diameter, frequently taller, with a 

 trunk 10-12 in diameter, but in the dry interior of the continent rarely more than 

 80-100 high, with a trunk hardly exceeding 2-3 in diameter, slender crowded 

 branches densely clothed with long pendulous lateral branches, forming while the 

 tree is young an open pyramid, soon deciduous from trees crowded in the forest, often 

 leaving the trunk naked for two thirds of its length and surmounted by a compara- 

 tively small narrow head sometimes becoming flap-topped by the lengthening of the 

 upper branches, and slender branchlets pubescent for three or four years, pale orange 

 color and lustrous during their first season, becoming bright reddish brown and ulti- 

 mately dark gray-brown. Winter-buds ovate, acute, the terminal bud often ^' long 



